45G Shallow - Considering a Carribean biotope

[TatorTaco]

Alright, so I guess I'll start a journal for my CAD Lights 45G Shallow Reef Versa Series

 

Tank: 45G Versa 3/8” thick Low-iron glass on 3 sides.  Aquarium dimensions are 35.5" x 23.75" x 11.75". Overall height is 48" with cabinet and tank. The previous version of this tank had a center overflow, but the new version’s overflow is in the left + rear.  The sump measures 27.5” x 13” x 11” which I think is about 15ish gallons.

 

 DOB:  Labor Day 9/4/2017

 

 Equipment:

·         CADLights 45G Shallow Reef Versa

·         Stock 660gph return pump

·         1x MP10

·         Reef Octopus 110S Skimmer

·         Kessil AP700 with Kessil Mounts

·         Tunze 3155 ATO

 Livestock Wishlist:

·         2x Snowflake (?) clownfish

·         Giraffe.  Watch me try.

Goals/Vision:

·         Predominately soft coral with a few LPS mixed in for movement. 

·         I want lots of bright colors so it’ll likely be saturated with zoas, polys, and RFA. 

·         I want to be sure I leave lots of space for the corals to grow into full colonies. 

·         I want this to be low tech.  No controllers, no dosers, nada. 

 

P.S:  This is only my 2^nd tank, after having a 120G for about 9 months before being taken down due to a leak.   

[TatorTaco]

Everybody likes pictures, so here's a few:

 

Tank Delivery Day!

 

 

I thought they may have shipped a bigger tank than what I had ordered.

 

Finally got the tank put together.  

 

Super glad I decided to rinse my dead sand first.  Look at that crud.  No cloudy water after about 20 minutes!  

 

 

I hate aquascaping.  The great thing about these shallow tanks is that it's very easy since you can't really stack anything. 

 

[TatorTaco]

Here's what I'm staring at until the cycle completes. 

 

I'm pretty sure my lights are waaaay too high at the moment. I will get around to fixing it while the tank cycles. 

[SantaMonicaHelp]

Good job!!

Waiting for the fish!

 

-Paola

[Lynton]

Love a shallow tank!!  Following for sure 

[TatorTaco]

So, I have a few questions.   The first is specifically regarding CADlights.  

 

Is this some sort of fish guard?  The only thing I can think to do with it, is to put it on the plumbing pipe that is open and facing downwards.  

 

Here's my thought process:  Below is a pic of my plumbing.  I'm thinking that I can choose to remove the top part of the pipe (with the hole in it) and slap this bad boy on top to guard fish from going down to the sump.  No?  I mean, if that's the case, I'm not too worried about it. 

 

 

Next question:  What is this thing, and what does it do?  I'm kinda thinking it goes in that hole to help silence it, but I'm not positive. 

If I'm right, can someone tell me what it's called so I can google a diagram to correctly install it.  It came with the tank, but not with my Reef Octopus skimmer, so I'm pretty sure that's what it is used for. 

[ninjamyst]

cant help you with the plumbing but great build!  will be following for sure.  

[Kellie in CA]

If I had the room, I'd be all over this tank. Can't wait to see what you do with it! 

[Travis]

The strainer, no idea. It didn't come with my 70.

 

The flex tube. No idea lol. I had one too but couldn't find a use for it. I tossed it lol. 

 

Really digging that scape!

 

how do you like the AP700?

[TatorTaco]

5 minutes ago, Travis said:

The strainer, no idea. It didn't come with my 70.

 

The flex tube. No idea lol. I had one too but couldn't find a use for it. I tossed it lol. 

 

Really digging that scape!

 

how do you like the AP700?

Good to know! That puts me at ease. 

 

No clue about the the light. Should be overkill for this tank, and since I don't plan on having SPS, it was probably a gigantic waste of money. I bought it before I bought a tank, with the intention of getting a Red Sea 250. At the last minute, I changed my mind and pulled the trigger on this shallow tank. Lol. 

 

It looks good when turned off. Looks good when on with great spread. I'll need to lower it, but idk how much yet. Need to get around to looking into that. 

[up.left]

Those dimensions are amazing! Nice work.

[TatorTaco]

1 hour ago, iroll253 said:

Those dimensions are amazing! Nice work.

Thanks!  Cycle is almost complete and I plan to grab a couple clownfish this weekend.  After that, I'll start stocking up on some corals. 

[kcamp317]

Thats a great looking tank.  Always was a fan of that style shallow aquarium.

[Travis]

What are your PO4 levels running?  Don't let them be undetectable like mine was.  I had dinoflagellates out of the whazoo.  I started with the AquaMaxx Eco base rock that had no PO4 leaching from it.

 

I ended up having to dose Brightwell NeoPhos to bring them up to 0.08ppm and do a 72 hour blackout to get rid of the dinos....

[TatorTaco]

19 minutes ago, Travis said:

What are your PO4 levels running?  Don't let them be undetectable like mine was.  I had dinoflagellates out of the whazoo.  I started with the AquaMaxx Eco base rock that had no PO4 leaching from it.

 

I ended up having to dose Brightwell NeoPhos to bring them up to 0.08ppm and do a 72 hour blackout to get rid of the dinos....

No kidding?  I haven't measured PO4 because the tank was cycling.  I'll check it out tonight and followup.  I'm using ReefCleaners rock so I could avoid PO4.  :-(

[TatorTaco]

If you have a preferred company that you like to buy your zoas from for relatively cheap, let me know. 

Edited September 21, 2017 by TatorTaco

[Travis]

1 minute ago, TatorTaco said:

No kidding?  I haven't measured PO4 because the tank was cycling.  I'll check it out tonight and followup.  I'm using ReefCleaners rock so I could avoid PO4.  :-(

haha, that's why I bought AquaMaxx Eco, to avoid the PO4, which it did.  But what you really want to avoid is HIGH PO4 and UNDETECTABLE PO4.  It's really a balancing act. Sam with NO3.

 

I keep my PO4 between 0.04ppm and 0.10ppm.  My NO3 between 4ppm and 8ppm.

Just now, TatorTaco said:

Does anyone remember the website/forum where a company had crazy sales on their corals?  I remember they'd post pictures up the day before the sale and the next day you simply emailed them with what you want.  They'd send you an invoice, you pay it, then they ship?

 

I think they only did it once a month.  Wanted to look into that to grab a chunk of corals at one time and possibly delay the fish purchase. 

 

Alternatively, if you have a preferred company that you like to buy your zoas from for relatively cheap, let me know. 

yourreef.com has really good zoa packs.

[samnaz]

Nice setup! Following. 

[TatorTaco]

So, this happened on Saturday:

 

I picked up 2 Black Saddleback Clownfish.  I originally planned to have 1 standard orange/white clownfish and 1 black/white clownfish but when I went to my LFS they had this pair that I thought looked gorgeous.  One is about 2" and the other is about 2 3/4".   They haven't been named at the moment, so I'll just refer to them as Small and Big. 

I did not offer food the afternoon they were introduced in my tank, but tried (unsuccessfully) on the 2nd day.  On the 3rd day I began to worry when neither showed interest in the itty bitty pellets or flakes.  Maybe they couldn’t bother to look up?  I ended up grabbing a small pinch of flakes and submersing my hand in the tank so the flakes would float in the water column.  THAT did the trick for Big.  Small had been concerning me as Small preferred to just hide in the back of the tank under a rock crevice.  Well, I’m a douche so I “accidentally” bumped the rock providing protection which startled Small enough to hang out near another rock.  Then, I repeated the process of releasing flakes under the water and Small ate too.  I was so excited! 

 

I think Small was a bit scared and starting to get lethargic, but Small is really making strides now that he’s eaten.  Small is now hanging out with Big a bit more, so I’m excited to see the tank after work.   

 

Here's some more pictures:

[TatorTaco]

Babysat my neice over the weekend, and she seemed to be a fan of the tank.  

 

Grew tired of staring at an empty tank, so I picked up some very cheap (and poorly fragged) LPS.  

Plain 'ol Plate Coral

Hammer Coral

I-Don't-Know-What-It-Is Coral (far right)

Small colony (20ish heads) of zoanthids.  

 

This is what they looked like immediately after dipping. 

 

I'm just going to sit back and enjoy the tank for another month while I save some cash.  Then, I'm going on a coral shopping spree.  :-)

[TatorTaco]

Algae Concerns:  I have absolutely 0 algae....anywhere.  I'm not sure why since my lights are on for about 10 hours.  I have my AP700 lights on acclimation mode, so the tank is constantly some shade of blue all day long. I have 2 clownfish that I feed heavily, but I also have a ReefOctopus 110SS skimmer which is rated much higher than my tank is.  However, I didn't have the skimmer dialed in correctly until a few days ago.  I'm running 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrites, and very low Nitrates.  Because of this, I still have not tossed a CUC in there for fear of starving them to death.  Any ideas or suggestions?

 

Coral Update:  I'm thinking the coral on the far right is a very ugly/bleached torch coral. I'd think that my tank is rather low flow, but I decided to move it about 5 finches towards the center of the tank so it'd be both closer to the lights and a rock would block some of the flow.  I'm pleased that the tentacles are now expanding further, but they're still very short.  It also has no color so I'm quite puzzled by that.  Nonetheless, I'll leave it be for a few weeks and monitor it.  

[samnaz]

Hmm got any recent pics of that unhappy Euphyllia? 

[SeaFurn]

On 10/6/2017 at 9:40 AM, TatorTaco said:

Algae Concerns:  I have absolutely 0 algae....anywhere.  I'm not sure why since my lights are on for about 10 hours.  I have my AP700 lights on acclimation mode, so the tank is constantly some shade of blue all day long. I have 2 clownfish that I feed heavily, but I also have a ReefOctopus 110SS skimmer which is rated much higher than my tank is.  However, I didn't have the skimmer dialed in correctly until a few days ago.  I'm running 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrites, and very low Nitrates.  Because of this, I still have not tossed a CUC in there for fear of starving them to death.  Any ideas or suggestions?

 

Give it time -it will come.  Yeah, no need to throw a CUC in there if there's nothing to feed on.

[TatorTaco]

On 10/8/2017 at 6:04 PM, samnaz said:

Hmm got any recent pics of that unhappy Euphyllia? 

Pic of the unhappy Euphyllia is a few post up.  It's the one on the right.  After moving it and it acclimating a bit, it seems to be doing much better.  I believe it's a torch coral.  If you focus really hard on the right side, you'll see one or two of it's sweeper tentacles.  This was the best photo I could snap last night. 

On 10/8/2017 at 7:46 PM, SeaFurn said:

Give it time -it will come.  Yeah, no need to throw a CUC in there if there's nothing to feed on.

Yuuuuup!  The AP700 lights are on acclimation mode, and they're a heavy shade of blue throughout the day.  When I turned my whites on, I could see a few brown spots Sunday.  Tuesday, I came home to this: 

 

So, I reckon I'll probably order a CUC package from John at ReefCleaners Wednesday.  I bought my rock from him and I don't have any reason not to give him more of my money.  Seems like a really great guy from my limited interactions with him. 

 

I've been window shopping for zoas and mushrooms to add to the tank.  It's so bleak right now.  Maybe in a few weeks I'll spend $150-200 on some frags. 

[Tonyb292]

This is such an awesome tank!  I'm jealous   

 

I was thinking about starting a 40 breeder setup once we buy another house in a year...but this tank seems like it'd fit the bill   

 

Definitely, following this build.